Huntington Football Opens Saturday at Half Hollow Hills East

The 102nd edition of the Huntington High School varsity football team will kickoff its season on Saturday at Half Hollow Hills East at 1:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Huntington is captained by Titan Elysee, Ryan Lawless, Banny Soc Concua, Jacob Guzik and Frank Algieri.

The coaching staff features head coach Ron Wilson; varsity assistants Kevin Graham, Antoine Swain, Dareus Smith and Christopher Taylor; JV coaches Dennis Scruggs and Cole Rudnick and volunteer guest clinician Clay Jamison; strength and conditioning coach Malcolm Eugene and volunteer assistants Fred Fusaro and Anthony McDonald.

“The varsity program has gone through a grueling three weeks of intense practices and this past Friday night showed that it paid off,” Wilson said. Huntington had a game scrimmage with Patchogue-Medford and dominated from the start behind some great performances.

“Senior Jacob Guzik will be our signal caller for the offense at QB,” Wilson said. “Guzik possess great arm strength and has been working steadily with offensive coordinators Chris Taylor and Antoine Swain. Guzik connected with sophomore Patrick Hassett who came up big last week on the second play from the line of scrimmage with a huge catch where he skated 60 yards for a touchdown.”

Hassett is a 6’5 target that doesn’t mind going up and getting those 50/50 balls. “He’s getting better every day and works extremely hard in practice,” Wilson said. “He knows and understands that his position also involves blocking on the perimeter where he uses his size to help our running backs on outside runs. Speaking of running backs, we have two that are legit. Seniors Yasir Jones and Titan Elysee will share roles to help lead the way for our offense.”

Jones stands at 6’2 and is a downhill runner trying to make opponents pay for trying to tackle him, while the speedy Elysee will just flat out beat foes with his speed.

“Our line is anchored by offensive tackles Ethan Lawless and Banny Soc Concua and guards Tahid McCoy and Jean Riboul,” Wilson said. “These young men aren’t the biggest, but I must say they are quick and tough. Other receivers that should help on the offensive side are Frankie Algieri, Jack Kamenstein, Shates Miller and Henry Gerberg.  These young men will round out our starting core for our offensive air raid.”

Defensively, it will be Lawless and senior Chase Northrop who will own the middle as Huntington’s inside linebackers. Junior Zayvion McCoy and Jones will share roles as outside linebackers. Juniors Erick Anariba, Zach Matthews, and Tahid McCoy will share roles at the nose tackle. Seniors Frankie Algieri and Vinny Pupillo will have to use their speed and physicality to make tackles and cover receivers from the safety position.

“This might be the first time in history that we have three kickers in seniors Max Carino and Luca Terrado and junior Robbie Campbell, who are all doing an outstanding job, leaving a difficult decision for special teams coordinator, Kevin Graham to make,” Wilson said.

There are eight regular season games on the schedule, with Huntington’s home opener set for Saturday, September 20 against North Babylon.

“Our mantra this year is, ‘Nothing Easy!’” Wilson said. “We understand that we have a difficult road to travel. We’ve been preaching to work every day to dominate your opponent. We are going to be relentless and physical, no matter what the opposition may look like. Forty-eight minutes of physicality and being relentless. Nothing easy for the Blue Devils. We are looking to earn it!”